Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has warned Europe it could face new threats from terrorist organizations if Libya’s Government of National Accord led by Fayez al-Sarraj were to fall.
In a column in Politico, published on Saturday on the eve of a Libya peace conference in Berlin, Erdogan said the EU's failure to adequately support the GNA would be "a betrayal of its own core values, including democracy and human rights".
"Europe will encounter a fresh set of problems and threats if Libya's legitimate government were to fall," Erdogan wrote.
"Terrorist organizations such as ISIS and al-Qaeda, which suffered a military defeat in Syria and Iraq, will find a fertile ground to get back on their feet."
At the Berlin meeting on Sunday, Germany and the United Nations will push Sarraj and Libyan National Army (LNA) Commander Khalifa Haftar, who are fighting over the capital, Tripoli, to agree to a truce and monitoring mechanism as first steps towards peace.
"Keeping in mind that Europe is less interested in providing military support to Libya, the obvious choice is to work with Turkey, which has already promised military assistance," Erdogan wrote in the article.
"We will train Libya's security forces and help them combat terrorism, human trafficking and other serious threats against international security," he added.
The Turkish parliament has approved the deployment of troops to Libya earlier this month after the signing of a controversial security and maritime deal between Sarraj and Ankara.
